In the modern world, industrial design is increasingly recognized as a strategic problem-solving process that drives innovation, builds business success and leads to a better quality of life through innovative products, systems, services and experiences. Combining innovation and creativity, industrial design has proved essential for attaining the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially Goal 9 on infrastructure, innovation, and sustainable industrialization.

Drawing upon UNIDO's extensive expertise and experience in this area, as well as from its partnership network with the private sector, the UNIDO's new technical service module "Industrial Design for Sustainable Development" brings into focus the importance of competitive industrial design solutions, along with appropriate support infrastructure and improved institutional capacities that are designed to support beneficiary small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in developing counties and economies in transition amid the challenging international development landscape marked by multidimensional disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A largely transformative impact of industrial design across countries and industries could be tracked through a selection of UNIDO projects' success stories, alongside with a chapter providing specific technical indicators to track and evaluate the module's tangible impact on all intervention levels.